Express is the New Twitter Case Study

by Ian Orekondy on October 7, 2010

Earlier this week, Twitter announced the launch of Twitter Promoted Accounts, which is a new advertising feature being rolled out to a handful of companies this week. In the announcement, Twitter used Xbox as an example.

Well, here’s our first example of another Twitter Promoted Account from @ExpressLisaG

One of the first Twitter Promoted Account Examples - Retail Apparel - Express

So what’s the impact of Express using Twitter Promoted Accounts? Well, the first way to measure the success is in the number of followers (yes, it’s a measure of success):

Express Twitter Followers Spike After Launch of Promoted Accounts

Her average number of daily new followers has increased 7x as we can see here:

7x increase in average daily new twitter followers, since launching Promoted Accounts

But I think @ExpressLisaG ‘s Promoted Twitter Account is more interesting than simply the increasing follower count. I think it demonstrates a few Twitter best practices that most stbrands and many people still struggle to follow:

Transparency – she clearly states in her Twitter profile that she works for Express (she’s the CMO)

Personality - her twitter name, profile and tweets all work together to give us a glimpse into her personality

Authentic Engagement- Lisa is interacting with her followers in lots of great ways. She’s not only answering customer questions, thanking people for mentioning Express and her social media efforts, but she’s even reading her followers’ blogs and then connecting back with them on Twitter! That is something I almost never see brands do on Twitter. Lisa – what’s your preferred social media listening tool? Got any great tips!?

Mix of Promotions – Lisa is mixing in promotional tweets to contests, sales, new products, which I think makes for a great balance overall. People want promotions with personality!

Advanced Tracking – not only is she using bit.ly to track clicks (which reveals at least one initial anecdotal insight – see below); she appears to be integrating Express’s Omniture Site Catalyst Web Analytics package into her tweets as well as we can see in the &CID parameter in the long URL below:

Example Long URL of shortened URL within tweet: http://www.express.com/london-sweater-27904-20.pro?Mft=london+sweater&Mpper=3&Mpos=1&Mpg=SEARCH%2BNAV&Mrsaa=*&Mrsavf=SIZE_NAME&Mrsavf=category&Mrsavf=Color&CID=937